S’pore Survey Shows 57% of Us Receive a Scam Message Every Week & Only 36% Report Them

Scam calls and scam texts, if you own a smart mobile device, you are bound to receive at least one of the two within a one-week period.

From scams that pose as government organisations such as the Ministry of Health, to scams that pose as our local postal company Singpost, scammers nowadays are becoming more and more creative.

However, when you receive these scam calls and texts, how often do you find yourself reporting them?

60% of People Do not Report Scams

According to a survey conducted by WhatsApp earlier in September, 64% of respondents, who were asked if they report scam calls and texts replied with a “No”.

For the survey, 500 Singaporeans and permanent residents aged above 18 years old were interviewed.

Among the 500 people, 57% reported that they receive at least two scam text messages or calls per week.

The most popular types of scams according to the survey is as follows:

• Investing Scams – 53%
• Phishing Scams – 50%
• Job Scams – 48%
• Delivery Scams – 45%

What Do People Do When They Receive such Scams?

According to the survey, 72% of people who received such scams would block the number, 71% of people would delete the message or call log and 52% of people will ignore it.

Despite being spammed by various scam numbers, only 36% of people who receive fraudulent texts report it to the messaging platform.

When asked about why they do not report such scams, respondents say that they do not think they will be scammed and that they do not care about such messages.

29% said that they are simply too busy to report the scam, while 20% of respondents say that they were either unsure of how to report the situation or did not believe that reporting the situation would benefit them.

WhatsApp’s Statement

On Monday (21 Nov), the popular online messaging platform, WhatsApp, issued a statement regarding the scam messages that have been flooding their application.

In the statement, they have asked the public to ensure that their 2FA is activated to prevent scammers from obtaining the user’s personal data via phishing scams.

They also gave some tips on how to spot scam messages such as messages asking for money or credit card numbers and suspicious links that the user is not familiar with.

To report a specific message in WhatsApp, users can simply hold on to the text bubble that they wish to report and click on the “report” button, which is located above the “delete” button.

Upon receiving the report, WhatsApp will investigate the user by checking the last five messages that they have sent to assess whether the user has violated any regulations set by WhatsApp.

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Featured Image: Reddit (u/meliyogi) & Shutterstock (@solomon7)